Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
July 15, 2008
1. Top Items -
Editorial
Dan Walters: Can we trust
The
Bass, Perata Back Measures to Improve State´s Water System
California
Bush lifts ban on offshore drilling
The
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Editorial
Dan Walters: Can we trust
The
By Dan Walters
Seven decades ago,
They created, therefore, a state Highway Commission to consult with highway engineers and decide which of the many competing projects were to be built, rather than leave those decisions to power politics and Capitol horse-trading.
It was not, of course, a perfectly objective, non-political system. Politicians still controlled the overall flow of money into highway construction, as well as the general shape of the state's highway network, and local advocates for projects would mount fierce lobbying campaigns to win highway commissioners' favor. But for the most part, it served
Thirty years ago, the Highway Commission was superseded by the California Transportation Commission and the project selection process was formalized even more, giving regional transportation planning bodies more input, but the essential separation of projects from back-scratching politics was preserved.
That separation was sorely tested during Gray Davis' abortive governorship. He diverted several billion dollars in windfall state revenues into highway projects that were chosen in the Governor's Office.
It's being tested anew because two years ago, voters approved nearly $20 billion in transportation bonds. Both highway and mass transit advocates, as well as local and state politicians, are busily trying to secure pieces of the pie that the commission is slicing up, even though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger solemnly promised voters that project selection would be purely on merits.
"The only way that we are going to get people on board again is if we show great accountability, meaning no pork-barrel kind of deals, no backroom deals that we've seen in
For the most part, it appears that promise has been kept, although Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has tried, with partial success, to grab more money for his city than the professional planners wanted to allocate.
It may be time for
Sadly, it may be the only way to resolve the self-defeating, never-ending political wrangle over whether to build new dams and reservoirs, whether to construct a new "conveyance" for Northern California water through or around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, whether to shift more water from agricultural to residential and industrial users, and whether to focus on conservation as an alternative to new storage.
The debate has been under way for three decades without resolution; meanwhile,
Countless blue-ribbon commissions and bureaucratic studies have recommended alternatives, but they have always foundered on the shoals of Capitol politics, including the annual state budget battle. And with Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein now proposing a new $9.3 billion water bond issue that would include new storage, the conflict is being joined again.
It may be, indeed, time simply to raise the money, as we do for transportation, and give it to an independent commission to spend as it sees fit. The present process clearly is not working.#
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/state/dan_walters/story/360072.html
Bass, Perata Back Measures to Improve State´s Water System
California
Senate President pro Tempore Don Perata (D-Oakland) and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-
"It's imperative that we get to work immediately improving water conservation, water storage and water management -- and that's exactly what these two bills do," Bass said. "This package sets a realistic target for boosting water conservation and uses already approved bond money to make big improvements in
"Just like California´s transportation infrastructure, our water system must be overhauled and upgraded to meet the growing demands of the 21st century," Perata said. "These bills take an important first step by quickly getting more than $800 million out the door and making conservation a top priority."
The two bills that comprise the package are:
SB 1XX (Second Extraordinary Session), by Perata, appropriates $812.5 million in Proposition 84 and Proposition 1-E dollars already approved by the voters in 2006. These funds are desperately needed by water agencies to address the current water drought and fire crisis and to provide immediate investments in water supply reliability.
AB 2175, by Assemblyman John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), establishes a 20 percent water conservation target for most urban water agencies by the year 2020. This mandate is similar to the renewable energy target the state has used for years. It essentially says that within 12 years, the state will meet one-fifth of its water needs through more efficient use of the water we have.#
http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/68326
Bush lifts ban on offshore drilling
The
By Richard Simon and James Gerstenzang,
Bush's decision to lift the executive order, which was imposed by his father in 1990 and renewed by President Clinton, will have no effect unless Congress cancels its own ban on offshore drilling.
But with the price of gasoline sitting above $4 a gallon, his action places the possibility of new drilling squarely in the public debate and gives him a political cudgel. Lawmakers are increasingly nervous about high gas prices in an election year, and Bush made clear he intended to use the pro-drilling argument against Congress' majority party.
"With this action, the executive branch's restrictions on this exploration have been cleared away," he told reporters in the White House Rose Garden.
"This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress.
"Now the ball is squarely in Congress' court," he added. "Democratic leaders can show that they have finally heard the frustrations of the American people by matching the action I have taken today."
Some drilling advocates have cited estimates that 18 billion barrels of oil could be recovered.
Democrats and environmentalists said that even if obstacles to new drilling in the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico were quickly lifted, the resulting gasoline would be years away, as refineries are running at or near capacity -- so there would be little or no immediate effect on supplies or prices.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), rejecting the president's challenge, countered that Bush should tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices by increasing supplies.
He has refused to do so, arguing that the reserve was created to relieve a national emergency.
The president's position raised special concern among politicians from
"In
Schwarzenegger called instead for development of alternative energy sources -- a category that includes wind and solar power -- and said a choice of power supplies was "the only way we will ultimately bring down fuel costs."
The congressional ban on new offshore drilling was first approved in 1981, in an Interior Department appropriations bill, and has been renewed annually since then.
On Monday, two key Democratic senators --
Congressional Republicans have pushed Democrats to support expanded domestic oil production, and they plan a new effort next week to allow offshore drilling.
Jeff Eshelman of the Independent Petroleum Assn. of America, a trade group for independent oil and gas producers, said Bush's statement placed "the pressure on Congress to act before the elections."
"It could be one of the most monumental votes faced by candidates running for office," he said.
In a sign of the changing mood, Rep. John Campbell (R-Irvine), who voted in 2006 against relaxing the moratorium, said in a recent interview, "I am becoming more flexible on the issue, which is clearly a function of the crisis in which we find ourselves."
Gas prices are "all anybody wants to talk about," he said.
"What I hear all the time is . . . 'I'm tired of sending all this money over to those people who hate us,' " he said. "And now it's a ridiculous amount of money we're sending to those people who hate us, and we need to stop that."
Jack N. Gerard, who this fall will become president of the industry's American Petroleum Institute, cheered Bush's action.
"Clearly, the ground is shifting on energy policy," said Gerard, currently the head of the American Chemistry Council.
To Lisa Speer, director of the water and oceans program for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, Bush's action removes "one layer of protection" for the coasts.
The battle to preserve the drilling ban has become tougher, she said. "It's a reflection of the pressure that politicians are feeling on gas prices. Everybody has to be very vigilant over the next few months until Congress goes out."
Dennis T. Kelso, executive vice president of the Ocean Conservancy, said: "While renewed offshore drilling will do little in the long or short term to help relieve a serious energy crisis, it does guarantee further ongoing destruction of our ocean resources."
Those who want to let states decide whether to permit offshore exploration say that technological advances have made drilling safer.#
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-drilling15-2008jul15,0,7920845.story?track=rss
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